Local professor gets second chance at life after terminal diagnosis
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A local university leader is getting a second chance at life, after receiving a terminal diagnosis and being given six months to live.
'In one way, the diagnosis was truth,' Dr. Will Smallwood, Vice President for Advancement at Cedarville University said. 'It was an answer to why I'm experiencing these things. But as you can imagine, a diagnosis of cancer instantly hits the heart and it hits the mind.'
By all rights, Smallwood shouldn't be sitting here today.
In December of 2023– after a litany of health issues– he learned he had multiple myeloma, an incurable cancer of the blood.
'Our minds go to the worst possible things,' Smallwood said. 'And that is cancer is going to take my life.'
Doctors said he had just six months to live.
'We have a verse all over the place… Psalm 90:12,' Smallwood said. 'Teach us to number our days, right, so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. That that really was already a framework in my mind.'
A framework that guided his attitude, both then and now.
'Life is short and I know that,' Smallwood said. 'And whether I get diagnosed with cancer or I'm in a car accident or walking across the street or whatever, we don't have a guarantee of tomorrow.'
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He says he had a choice: Give up, or trust God the same way he had for the last 40 years.
'Is that all suddenly just thrown out the window?' Smallwood said. 'It wasn't. And so in that very early time period as we began to just trust that, okay, if it's six months, it's okay. I know what's going to come next. And I'm not fearful of that and I'm okay with that. And so let's take advantage of the six months that we had.'
He and his family leaned into that notion. They took advantage of every available treatment.
'By August of 2024, the doctors declared my cancer in what's called durable remission,' Smallwood said. 'So the cancer is still there and someday it will come back. It will rear its ugly head. And we may have to walk through this process again and again. I understand that, and I'm okay with that.'
But in the meantime, he says he will use his experience to send a simple message to others facing similar trials:
'There's never a bad time to begin trusting in God,' Smallwood said. 'There's never a bad moment to begin that relationship. And even in the midst of cancer, it's a good time and trusting and sort of His sovereign grace and rule over my life and whether that six months or whatever the case may be.'
Dr. Smallwood also credits his cancer team at Soin Cancer Center and the James Cancer Center in Columbus.
He has since been able to return to his work at Cedarville and is leading the school's 175 million dollar '1000 Days Transformed' campaign.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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